Boreham Wood confirm Charlton offer rejected for Sorba Thomas

Boreham Wood have confirmed that Charlton Athletic made a bid for Sorba Thomas – but that it did not meet their valuation of the youngster.

The Addicks are believed to have lodged a six-figure offer for the 21-year-old.

“After a leaked article was anonymously put into the public domain yesterday and after much speculation that Charlton Athletic had made an offer for Wood fans favourite Sorba Thomas, the club can now publicly state, that Charlton have in fact made a bid,” said the National League side in a statement on their website. “But their kind offer falls a bit short of the club’s valuation of the player, which they were made very aware of that before making their offer in writing.

“We have out of respect to both Charlton Athletic, Steve Gallen and of course the player, reiterated our asking price to Charlton by detailing what would trigger our acceptance and we have also stated that we are very happy to take payments in stages to assist the player securing his move into the EFL.

Wood chairman Danny Hunter added: “We’ve carefully nurtured Sorba through our academy and over the last three or four years given him a great first team shop window to showcase his talent. In truth, everyone has now seen his talent, knows his value as a player, what he represents and what his worth is to the club.

“It’s very unfortunate that Sorbs was advised to pull out of our league game at King’s Lynn on Tuesday, to perhaps force through a move, but as my mother used to say, youth is wasted on the young. That said, as a smaller club we must stand up to that type of behaviour and orchestrated bullying.

“What I can say is categorically is that, if Charlton Athletic, Barnsley, Peterborough United, Portsmouth, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, QPR or any of the other rumoured interested clubs do match our valuation, then they can of course talk to the player.

“If Sorbs and his representatives then choose to go, he will leave Boreham Wood with our full blessing and well wishes. If our valuation is not met, then we expect Sorbs to act professionally, keep working hard and if he does that, then his talent will do the rest.

“Neither the gaffer nor myself honestly wish to stand in his way, as he’s worked hard to get to where he presently sits, but everyone already knows that he really is an outstanding talent.

“You don’t sell the family silver for under the market value. We have also been patient and developed him beautifully here since he was 16. As such we do feel he genuinely has a true development value to this football club and we believe any fee has been honestly earned.”